Phantom
by Scrawlers
Summary: Drabble set experimenting with interaction between Joshua and Rhyme, through methods as unconventional as they are.


**Disclaimer: **I can't touch Neku's _headphones_, much less _him_. What part of that says ownership?

**Authors' Note: **An idea that came to me at - surprise, surprise! - work. These aren't romance, per se (and I say per se only because literature is meant to be interpreted, and everyone interprets things differently), but rather an experiment with Joshua and Rhyme's relationship - whatever it may be, if they even had one. Acquaintances, friends . . . I wanted to test the waters. It intrigues me, because I think that Rhyme's Soul is probably similar to Neku's in a lot of ways, with the biggest difference being the fact that hers isn't damaged like his. I think that maybe - just maybe - that might intrigue Joshua. Maybe. So I started with drabble one, which is the idea that came to me at work, and I kept writing. Where it ended up . . . is where it ended up. It wasn't planned, it just happened, and I like it best that way.

Please read and review!

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**Phantom**

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_i. streetlamps_

Rhyme first notices it a few weeks after the Game, when she's walking home by herself one night. It's never truly dark in Shibuya, not with all the neon lights and flashing screens, such as the one on top of Q-Floor. But as she gets closer to her home it gets a little darker, and sometimes there are alleys in-between buildings that call out that they're shortcuts even when they look like danger.

But one night, when she's walking home alone, she gets the feeling that someone is following her.

It isn't a creepy feeling. She looks around her, to see if someone is, but she doesn't see anyone and gets the feeling that she isn't in any danger. Other girls her age dance from street lamp to street lamp, thinking that there's safety in the light, even though Rhyme knows that's silly; light is just light, and it won't save you if it's your time to die.

Headlights didn't save her or Beat. Broad daylight didn't stop the shark Noise.

So Rhyme walks normally, though she feels like someone is following her and watching her. No one does anything and when she steps back onto her porch, her hand on the door handle, she feels the presence vanish. Poof. Gone. She thinks about it a little bit before she goes to sleep that night but pushes it from her mind as soon as her head hits the pillow. Whoever it was, they weren't dangerous, and Rhyme doesn't see a need to worry.

The next time she walks home alone, the same being-watched feeling touches across the back of her neck like ghostly fingers.

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_ii. dreams_

Rhyme loves her dreams.

She doesn't get them that often, and sometimes she wonders if her sleeping-dreams were somehow wrapped up in her lifegoal-dreams - the ones that were taken as her entry fee for the Game and weren't returned because she lost. But then she tells herself that such thoughts are silly, because it's not like the Reapers would make a mistake like _that_, not when it was _their _Game, and there are still times that she gets the dreams that she loves; the kinds with vivid, bright colors and swirling patterns that sometimes form pictures, that don't always make sense right away but make her smile into space when she's in class, even though she knows she should pay attention.

But lately she's been having more dreams, different dreams, when she goes to sleep. She's been staying out later at night because her school friends keep dragging her to different places, to karaoke clubs that are open to minors and music museums and record stores, saying that they want her to "remember who she was." Rhyme thinks she's the same person, just dreamless, and that nothing they do will give her her dreams back - but she can't say that, because they wouldn't understand, and she knows that they mean well and doesn't want to hurt them.

But she stays out later because of it, and every time she walks home alone she feels those eyes, always watching, until she gets to her front porch. Then the feeling vanishes and Rhyme goes inside, acting like normal, but still thinking of him - she knows it's a him, she can feel it - when her head hits the pillow and she pulls her blanket up to her cheek.

Now, instead of dreaming of brilliant colors and vague shapes, she dreams of a shadow lingering on the edge of the colors, becoming more prominent every night.

* * *

_iii. daylight_

Rhyme feels him watching her in the daytime after she was almost robbed.

It's funny, because she never would have thought someone would target _her _for a hit-and-run - but they do, ripping her bag from her shoulders and taking off with it. It's extra ironic because Rhyme was just carrying library books in her bag - her money was in her wallet in the back pocket of her shorts, just like how Beat always carried his - but the person takes it and takes off running. Rhyme takes off running after them, yelling at them to stop, but they don't and as she runs Rhyme feels that familiar presence watching her.

Eventually, inexplicably, the person stops. It's a young boy, though he's older than her, and he leans against the side of a building, wheezing and panting. Rhyme feels sorry for him, even though he just stole her bag, and instead of yelling at him or hitting him or anything, she asks him if he's okay. He turns to stare at her, stare at her like she's insane, and maybe she is because she imagines that the person watching her has narrowed his eyes at her, even though she can't see him.

The thief says he's fine and throws Rhyme's bag back at her. Tells her to shove off. Rhyme doesn't, and instead asks him why. Why did he take her bag? Did he need money?

He does. He does because his mom's sick and he's sick and they're broke but what does she care? She's just a kid and he only robbed her because she looked like an easy target. So what does it matter?

It matters, Rhyme says, because he wasn't just being a criminal. He honestly needs the money, and while he shouldn't steal - because stealing _is _wrong no matter the reason - she can see that he did it for a good reason, and that makes a difference to her. And so she pulls out her wallet - his eyes widen when he sees it wasn't in her bag - and she gives him everything in it. Well, all the money. She has to keep her school ID and other important cards because they're important and they wouldn't do him much good anyway.

"Here," she says, and she takes his hand and puts the money in it before curling his fingers around it. "It's not much, but it's all I have," she says. "I hope you and your mother get better. Remember, it's always darkest before the dawn."

She leaves the thief there staring after her, staring after her like she's insane, and as she walks away, Rhyme feels the eyes still on her, still watching, not so much protective anymore but definitely scrutinizing. And as she walks, Rhyme can't help but think, _It was the right thing to do, you know._

Maybe she's crazy, but Rhyme thinks he hears her.

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_iv. text message_

The morning after the kinda-sorta-not-really mugging, Rhyme receives a text message from an unlisted number, one that she can't trace or call.

_Your naivety will be the death of you._

Although most would be scared to get such a message, a message from a person they don't even know, Rhyme smiles as she reads the message and types out a reply, even though she isn't sure if the person will get it or not. _It already was - twice. _She knows the text message was from her watcher, the one who feels more like a ghost than an actual person, and she hopes that he gets her reply because it's nice to finally be able to talk to him, even if it's in a roundabout way.

As she leaves to go to school, Beat asks her why she's smiling so much that morning, and Rhyme just replies that it's a nice day.

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_v. correspondence_

The Phantom, as Rhyme has taken to calling him, must have gotten her response because he sends a reply halfway through her first class, and Rhyme hastens to check it during the break, when none of the teachers are looking.

_Cheeky response. Though you should be careful who you tell that to. Not all would be as accepting._

Rhyme can't explain why she's so excited that he got the message and replied or why she quickly types a message back: _Oh, I don't tell it to everyone. But I can trust you. _She doesn't even know who he is or why he's watching her and she knows that if she told Beat, he'd go ballistic and wouldn't leave her side for months.

But even if she's only thirteen, Rhyme feels like she's mature enough to know who's dangerous and who's not. Sometimes even more so than Beat, who would walk headfirst into a trap without thinking twice.

She can be friends with this Phantom, she thinks. After all, there were no time limits in the text messages, no threat of erasure. She was safe, at least for the time being.

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_vi. Joshua_

The first time Rhyme meets Joshua, it's completely by accident.

That day Beat and Neku were going to head up to Molco to participate in a Slam Off, and originally Rhyme was going to hang out with Shiki and Eri because they had been badgering her forever about dressing in more girly clothes and she decided to indulge them and go shopping just this one time. But along the way they happened to run into Neku and Beat because the Slam Off was cancelled, and Joshua was with them even though Beat was complaining loudly and Neku seemed irritated.

Rhyme remembers hearing stories about Joshua, about how he's Shibuya's Composer and how he killed Neku twice (though she never received details about that, and she never asked for them, either). Rhyme never met him, but she remembers the stories and as she looks at him, about the same size as she is yet standing as if he's ten feet tall, she can't help but think that she's seen him somewhere before. There's something familiar about him, even if he barely glances in her direction to offer her a smirk before looking back at Neku.

When it comes time for Joshua to leave - which is rather abrupt, but Rhyme quickly learns that Joshua does things when he wants to do them and no sooner or later than that - he looks in her direction again, for just a fleeting moment, and waves. "Nice meeting you," he says, before looking away again.

Rhyme smiles, even though she gets the distinct feeling that something is off about what he just said. "Nice meeting you, too," she replies, even though the words feel wrong on her tongue.

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_vii. helping the needy_

A few years later, when Rhyme is sixteen, she begins volunteering at a local shelter.

She enjoys meeting people there and she also enjoys helping them. She works there every afternoon, helping to prepare meals or just helping people get settled in, or maybe playing with the kids that are there. Sometimes she feels sad, because it _is _sad that so many people are down on their luck, but mostly she just feels fulfilled somehow. Fulfilled like she hasn't since she first lost the Game and her dreams.

The text messages have not been regular for a long time, have been on and off and sporadic, because he sends her one when he feels like and at no other time. But one day when she's walking home from the shelter, the eyes on her like normal, she gets a text message that makes her frown a little, her walk slowing into a stop.

_Why help others find their way when you're lost yourself?_

Rhyme puzzles over that message, but by the time she lays down to go to sleep that night, she still doesn't have a response and her sleep is fitful because of it.

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_viii. no need for approval_

Rhyme doesn't know whether it's funny that it took him a little over three years to find out or upsetting that Beat takes the news so badly.

He's her big brother, and he's still protective of her, and when he sees the text messages that crowd her inbox when she accidentally leaves her inbox open on the kitchen table, and when he learns that she doesn't know who the Phantom is and that he's been following her for three years he goes nuts. And of course he tells Neku, who tells Shiki, and before Rhyme even knows what's happening Neku and Shiki are over at her house and they're working with Beat to try and figure out who it could be. Rhyme is exasperated and think they're being ridiculous - how can they find out if even she doesn't know? - but in the end nothing definite is reached. Neku just tells her to punch whoever it is in the face if she gets the chance, and the way he says it makes Rhyme think he might know, but if he does he's not telling. Beat tells her that he doesn't want her talking to "the freaky phantom," but Rhyme tells him that nothing bad has happened in three years and so she doubts it will.

That night, just as she's laying down to go to sleep, her phone vibrates and she picks it up to see a new message from him: _To be perfectly honest, I don't give a damn what they think._

Rhyme smiles, and types one small message before she closes her eyes: _Neither do I._

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_ix. travel abroad_

When Rhyme is eighteen, she decides to travel the world.

Her parents wanted her to go to college, and Rhyme knows that she should, but she saved up money to travel and in the end, that's what she decides to do. She'd just be an undecided college student anyway, which is fine, but Rhyme has a feeling that if she went in undeclared, she'd stay undeclared for the duration of her college career, and that isn't what she wants to do.

So she decides to travel, to see the world, because maybe instead of waiting for her dreams to come to her, she should go to her dreams.

She gets the feeling that the Phantom isn't pleased about this. Whenever she goes out she feels like someone is watching her in disapproval, and when she's at the airport, hugging her family and friends goodbye, she feels another gaze on her - watching, not pleased, but not willing to get close. She gives Shiki another hug, but looks over her friend's shoulder, wondering if she'll catch sight of him, just this one time. She doesn't, of course, and she's not surprised, though she is a little disappointed even though she knows she shouldn't be.

It isn't until she's boarding the plane that her cell phone vibrates in her pocket, and she hastily pulls it out to read: _You're aware that I can't follow you._

She knows - she knew when she made the decision. And she nods, even though she can't feel him anymore because he isn't on the plane with her. _I know. But I'll come back, _she pauses, unsure if she should say it or not, unsure because she never had confirmation and has only been going on gut feelings. But in the end, she types it, figuring that he'll always correct her if she's wrong - he always does. _Joshua._

Rhyme almost thinks she's offended him, because he's a fast texter and doesn't respond right away. It isn't until she's sitting in her seat, her seatbelt buckled, looking out the window that her phone vibrates again. The stewardess looks over at her in disapproval but Rhyme ignores the look, flipping open her phone to read three words which make her happier than she could have thought: _You had better._

Quickly shutting off her phone before the stewardess tells her too, Rhyme leans back in her seat and smiles, her eyes closed, yet still seeing Joshua's last text message as clearly as if her phone was still open.


End file.
